Oxford Study Trip offers unique look at Baptist Heritage & C.S. Lewis

An incredible learning and travel opportunity awaits Southwestern students this summer during the Oxford 2010 Study Trip, July 5-26. Students will experience the university city of Oxford, which was the home of the literary discussion group that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien known as the Inklings.

Additionally, students can earn up to six hours of on-campus credit for classes in education, apologetics, church history and Baptist heritage. Traveling throughout Great Britain, participants will visit historical sites related to John Wyclif, William Tyndale, John Knox, John Bunyan, William Carey, Andrew Fuller, John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Todd Marquis, a Southwestern Th.M. student, attended the trip in 2008 and will be returning again this summer.

“You’re going to take a couple of classes that you can either take on campus at Southwestern or you can take them in England,” Marquis says. “You get to see all of these fabulous, historic places and be able to visualize what happened—the kind of thing you can’t do in a classroom.”

Marquis says his trip in 2008 sparked further interest in church history and engaging other cultures.

“To me, there are two aspects to this trip,” says Marquis. “The first one is the formal aspect—the education that you get, the hands-on experience that you get, the ability to see these things that you would not otherwise get to see.

“This trip is among the best I have ever experienced,” said seminary vice president Thomas White. “Not only is it extremely well organized, but hearing Dr. Yarnell share his experiences from studying at Oxford and lectures on Theology and Baptist History as you travel make this trip a once in a lifetime opportunity. I would recommend it to everyone.”

During previous trips, students and faculty have used random conversations as witnessing opportunities, making the trip evangelistic as well as educational.

Cost for the trip is $4,200, which includes air and in-country travel, accommodations, meals and tuition. Classes offered for 2010 include Christian Apologetics, The Ministry of Education, Women in Church History: Puritans, and Baptist Heritage. Directed studies are also available. For more information, visit www.swbts.edu/oxford or e-mail Madison Grace at oxford@swbts.edu.